Baku 2015: A Sport-by-Sport Review

28 June 2015 / 15:01

Team GB’s athletes showed that they are among the best the continent has to offer at the European Games as the squad finished with 47 medals. There were 18 golds for Brits in Baku while Team GB also took ten silver medals and 19 bronzes.

And with Rio edging ever closer the performances of Team GB’s young athletes and seasoned veterans alike bode well for 2016.

Aquatics: Diving

While Britain’s senior divers prepare for the World Championships in Kazan, the country’s youngsters finished top of the pile in the Baku Aquatics Centre.

James Heatly took men’s 3m springboard gold while Matty Lee was the other individual men’s winner with platform victory.

Heatly finished the competition with three medals to his name after also claiming 1m springboard bronze and silver with Ross Haslam in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard.

In the women’s events there was two more gold medals for Team GB as Katherine Torrance delivered in the 3m springboard and Lois Toulson produced a stunning performance to win the platform.

Aquatics: Swimming

Of Team GB’s 47 medals, 23 came for the country’s troop of exciting swimming talent.

The Russians were the dominant force in the pool but Britain showed that they have an abundance of talent as Duncan Scott took six medals – including gold in the men’s 200m freestyle with Cameron Kurle taking silver.

Luke Greenbank helped himself to double individual gold as he won in both the 100m and 200m backstroke finals.

There was more success in the women’s races as Holly Hibbot took top spot in the women’s 800m freestyle and Abbie Wood’s first of four medals came when she took gold in the 400m individual medley.

Aquatics: Synchronised Swimming

It was never going to be easy for Team GB’s synchronised swimming team but they made sure they gave a solid account of themselves as they progressed to the team final.

The ten-strong team eventually finished ninth with 144.6049 while the pairing of Jodie Cowie and Genevieve Randall finished 12th in their duet final.

And coach Karen Thorpe believes the hard work is starting to pay dividends for the duo.

“It makes the hard work worth it when they get the right score,” she said. “And that performance was a lot better. The girls would have felt that while in the water and they produced a good swim.”

Shooting

Youngster Amber Hill was the pick of the bunch in the shooting after she showed nerves of steel to edge out world number one Diana Bacosi to women’s skeet gold.

The Italian hit 75 out of 75 targets into the final, but Hill, shooting second throughout, was unfazed as she forced a shoot off with the pair missing just one clay each.

What followed was an astonishing test of nerve as both performed faultlessly until Bacosi missed her 30th clay and 17-year-old Hill took full advantage to claim Team GB’s fifth gold medal of the European Games.

“I’ve never known anything like it. She is an incredible shooter, she shot 75 out of 75 and to then do that in the final was incredible,” said Hill, who qualified for next year’s Olympic Games in Rio as a consequence of reaching the final.

Table Tennis

It was a mixed bag for the country’s table tennis stars with Paul Drinkhall pushing all the way for a medal but Kelly Sibley unable to make a dent into the competition.

Drinkall managed to secure a bronze-medal match with Ukraine’s Lei Kou but eventually went down 4-2.

Earlier in the men’s singles Liam Pitchford had also shown good form to make it to the third round but was bested by Slovakia’s Wang Yang.

But for Sibley there was disappointment as she fell as the first hurdle and was knocked out 4-2 by Ruta Paskauskiene.

Taekwondo

Jade Jones was always going to be the woman to beat in Baku and lived up to the hype by claiming the first-ever -57kg European Games gold.

Jones was not always at her best in Azerbaijan but she came through in the end to add another medal to her growing collection.

But Jones wasn’t the only woman to win gold as Charlie Maddock took -49kg victory, although there was disappointment for world champion Bianca Walkden who was knocked out in the quarter finals.

In the men’s event Lutalo Muhammad recovered sufficiently from knee surgery to take bronze at -80kg and stake his claim for a spot at Rio 2016.

Triathlon

It will always be a challenge for any British male triathlete to compete with the Brownlee brothers but Godron Benson’s gold showed that there is an abundance of strength in depth available to Team GB.

The under-23 European champion was by far and away the quickest in the men’s race as he clocked 1:48.31 to take victory ahead of Portugal’s Joao Silva by 11 seconds.

There were no medals however in the women’s race where Heather Sellars finished 15th.

Volleyball: Beach Volleyball

There was little to cheer for beach volleyball duo Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf as they lost all three of their Pool G encounters.

The pair, both 25, started with a 2-0 defeat to Austria and that trend continued as they lost to Spain and Estonia.

Wrestling: Freestyle

Commonwealth medallist Chinu was left disappointed after he lost 4-0 to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khotsianivyskyi.

Chinu was given a bye to the 1/8 finals but couldn’t progress any further and their was also disappointment for Yana Rattigan who was beaten by Ukranian Oleksandra Kogut 4-1 in her qualification bout.

Chinu said: “I could have done better, you can always do better. I want to thank British wrestling for giving me the opportunity and hopefully I can work hard and come back strong.”